TV on DVD Buzz

Following last Thursday’s announcement of the new Director’s Guild of America contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, the  Writer’s Guild of America has agreed to begin informal talks with studio CEOs, perhaps as early as today. The hope is that these talks will resume the formal negotiations with the AMPTP and put an end to the strike.

The WGA was said to be studying the terms of the DGA’s contract this past weekend and the WGA board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday night.

Although this is just the first, minor step in ending toward strike, it does mark the first time the WGA and AMPTP have met since December 7. Perhaps both sides will be ready to negotiate and get this strike put to bed.

Netflix announced yesterday that all subscribers on unlimited rental plans, which includes all but it’s lowest tier, will be able to stream as many movies and TV episodes as they want on their PCs, choosing from a library of over 6,000 familiar movies and TV episodes.

Previously, the number of hours per month was limited based on the subscription level. Now, subscribers on unlimited plans get unlimited DVD rentals from the 90,0000+ Netflix library plus the ability to stream as many movies and TV episodes as they want from the 6,000 title “instant watching” library.

“Unlimited has always been a very powerful selling point with our subscribers and a large part of what set us apart in the marketplace,” said Leslie Kilgore, the company’s chief marketing officer. “In talking with members about our streaming feature during the past year, it became clear that, as with DVDs, the idea of streaming unlimited movies and TV episodes on a PC resonated quite strongly. And we’re now in a good position to offer that.”

This service competes with Blockbuster’s MovieLink and it is rumored that Apple will be announcing a similar service with iTunes in the near future.

The 4th Annual TV on DVD Awards were held Monday, November 12 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, California. They were presented by Home Media Magazine in conjunction with TVShowsonDVD.com, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group and The Hollywood Reporter.

A complete-series boxed set of “Get Smart” won the top honor, while Jim Henson’s Muppets took home the most awards with three honors.

“Get Smart: The Complete Series,” a collaboration between Time Life and HBO Video, earned the Best of Show prize for its clever phone booth design and bonus features such as commentaries, interviews, bloopers and rare footage. “Get Smart” also took home best 1960’s series.

The second-season DVD of “The Muppet Show” won for best 1970s series and best children’s program, and Jim Henson’s “Fraggle Rock: Season 3,” won best 1980s series.

Judges also gave a special award to Anchor Bay’s “Greatest American Hero” limited-edition collector’s set for its packaging and inclusion of replicas of props from the show.

Winners were also announced in the 16 categories voted by consumers in an online vote between October 15-26.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Best of Show: Get Smart: The Complete Series, Time Life/HBO Video
Best 2000s Series: Heroes: Season 1, Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Best 1990s Series: Seinfeld: Season 8, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Best 1980s Series: Fraggle Rock: Season 3, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment/HIT Entertainment
Best 1970s Series: The Muppet Show: Season 2, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Best 1960s Series: Get Smart: The Complete Series, Time Life/HBO Video
Best 1950s Series: Adventures of Superman: Seasons 5 & 6, Warner Home Video
Best Animated Series: The Simpsons: Season 10, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Best Children’s Series: The Muppet Show: Season 2, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Best Reality Series: Survivor: Vanuatu, CBS DVD/Paramount Home Entertainment
Best Variety Series: The Best of Chappelle’s Show, Paramount Home Entertainment/Comedy Central
Best One-Season Wonder: The Dresden Files, Lionsgate
Best Miniseries or Made-for-TV Movie: Roots: 30th Anniversary Edition, Warner Home Video
Best Foreign TV Series: Doctor Who: Series 2, BBC Video
Best TV Documentary: Planet Earth, BBC Video

Many people aren’t clear as to what this Hollywood writers strike is all about. I had read a great deal about it but still wasn’t completely clear about it until I found a great blog with a video that explains it in very easy language with pictures. The blog, United Hollywood, is put together by a group strike captains and is very informative. It also includes links to their YouTube videos which feature some of your favorite stars and the creators of some of your favorite shows. I recommend you watch some of the videos because they are quite funny.

Here’s the one that explains it all:

I have to say, as sorry as I am to see my shows ending early, I agree with the writers. The internet isn’t going anywhere and they deserve to be paid for their work. I hope the studios will sit down with them and they can end this soon.

As of midnight last night, the WGA is on strike. Last minute negotiations failed and an agreement could not be reached.

Late night talk shows and things like “The Daily Show” will be the first affected. Scripted programs are shot weeks in advance so we should have new programming through the beginning of December for most shows. Most shows take a hiatus for 3 weeks or so during the holidays, but come January we will be watching reruns unless this strike comes to a swift resolution.

If the strike lasts more than just a few weeks, the TV season won’t be able to recover as they would lose too much production time. Let’s hope it doesn’t last 22 weeks like the last strike in the late 1980’s.

It’s a good thing there are some fantastic titles and complete series sets releasing on DVD over the next few weeks. We’re going to need something to watch.

Hollywood writer’s are threatening to strike. Woe is me!

One of the key financial issues bugging the Writer’s Guild is the poor deal they are getting on DVD revenue. They want the current formula, which was conceived when VHS was an experiment, changed. They also want a share of the money made from material offered online and via other digital platforms.

Studios are not real keen on increasing DVD royalties and they say the digital market is too young to know what kind of money will be made there.

Currently, writers receive only about 3 cents per $20 DVD. They would like to see that amount doubled and include digital distribution as well. Sounds reasonable.

While I agree that they are getting the shaft on DVD royalties, don’t feel too sorry for them yet. According to Forbes, These royalties are in addition to a hefty salary. A veteran writer makes at least a low six figure salary plus an additional $30,000 per episode for “written by” credit on an hour long show.

While the deadline has passed without a strike, many believe a strike is still imminent. If a strike does occur, late night programming will be the first casualty. Most scripted shows have been filmed weeks in advance and will be safe for a while. But remember, the 1988 strike went on for 22 weeks. I don’t think I can bear to be without my shows for that long!

One thing about it, if a strike does happen, DVD sales will probably shoot through the roof. Let’s face it, who wants to watch inferior reality programming or reruns loaded with commercials when you could break out the old favorites on DVD to enjoy commercial free.

Home Media Magazine is presenting the fourth annual TV DVD Awards. The awards honor the best TV DVD releases of the past year and are presented at a gala dinner and cocktail party to be held November 12.

A panel of judges narrowed down the 160 entries down to four nominees in each of the 16 categories. Now it’s your turn to to help select the winners! Here are the nominees:

Best Bonus Materials
 Lost: Season 2
 Masters of Horror: Season 1
 Rome: Season 2
 Seinfeld: Season 8

Best 2000s Series
 24: Season 5
 Deadwood: Season 3
 Heroes: Season 1
 Lost: Season 2

Best 1990s Series
 The Larry Sanders Show: Not Just the Best of
 Picket Fences: Season 1
 The Practice: Volume 1
 Seinfeld: Season 8

Best 1980s Series
 Cagney & Lacey: Season 1
 Fraggle Rock: Season 3
 The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series
 St. Elsewhere: Season 1

Best 1970s Series
 The Muppet Show: Season 2
 The Odd Couple: Season 1
 Saturday Night Live: Season 1
 Welcome Back Kotter: Season 1

Best 1960s Series
 The Addams Family: Volume 1
 The Archie Show: The Complete Series
 Get Smart: The Complete Collection
 McHale’s Navy: Season 1

Best 1950s Series
 The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet: Best of
 Adventures of Superman: Seasons 5 & 6
 Gunsmoke: Season 1
 The Johnny Carson Show: Best of

Best Animated Series
 Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Series
 Family Guy: Volume 5
 The Simpsons: Season 10
 South Park: Season 10

Best Children’s Series
 Clifford, the Big Red Dog: Best of
 Dinosaurs: Seasons 3 & 4
 The Muppet Show: Season 2
 That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana: Mixed Up, Mashed Up Edition

Best Reality Series
 The Girls Next Door: Season 2
 Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List — Season 1
 MXC: Most Extreme Elimination Challenge — Season 1
 Survivor: Vanuatu

Best Variety Series
 Chappelle’s Show: Best of
 The Dick Cavett Show: Hollywood Greats
 Hootenanny: Best of
 The Tomorrow Show: Tom Snyder’s Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show

Best One-Season Wonder
 Dane Cook: Tourgasm
 The Dresden Files: Season 1
 Kidnapped: The Complete Series
 That’s My Bush: The Definitive Collection

Best Miniseries/Made-for-TV Movie
 Broken Trail
 Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
 The Lost Room
 Roots: 30th Anniversary Edition

Best Foreign TV Series
 Beck Mongolian Chop Squad Vol. 1
 Doctor Who: Series 2
 DragonBall Z: Season 1
 Hex

Best TV Documentary
 Diana: Last Days of a Princess
 The Journalist and the Jihadi
 Planet Earth
 When the Levees Broke

Best Complete-Series Set
 Get Smart
 M*A*S*H
 Six Feet Under

Remember to consider special features, menus, ease of navigation, packaging, sound and picture in addition to the show itself.

Voting ends Oct. 26 so go now to the TV on DVD Awards site and cast your ballot!

Warner Home Video announced Tuesday that they will be including two downloadable digital files on the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix DVD, which will hit shelves December 11. Buyers will be able to download the film to a PC or portable device, making Warner the first to offer customers that option.

Warner offered downloads to Wal-Mart customers on last year’s Superman Returns DVD, but this is the first time it has been widely offered. This is just the first step toward providing digital format for customers. Other studios are expected to follow suit.

In addition, major studios are planning to license their film libraries for DVD on-demand kiosks, which could be placed in retailers with limited space for DVDs, such as drug stores. The recent approval of CSS copyright protection for disc manufacturing-on-demand (MOD) has paved the way for these changes.

Studios will be able to offer thousands more film and TV library titles than are currently available. Drug stores could become significant new film and TV retailers since MOD can be done through small automated machines, utilizing existing high-end photo equipment for any DVD art needs.

In addition to the retail application, MOD could be offered directly to consumers’ via PCs and eventually on Web-connected hardware such as high-definition players. The MOD service is already available through Amazon.com’s CreateSpace. The selection is expected to rapidly expand due to the new CSS approval.

The only drawback to the at-home offering, is that DVD burners would need to be replaced and/or upgraded with firmware to handle the new CSS requirements.

TV on DVD, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Downloadable Files, DVD on Demand, Warner

Hewlett-Packard announced today that they have partnered with 30 content providers who will license more than 4,000 movie, television, documentary and other titles for production and distribution via HP Video Merchant Services.

The service, launched earlier this year, is designed for retailers and allow them to offer DVDs, either manufactured on demand or pre-packaged, as well as digital downloads.  They are targeting classic and older TV shows never before released on DVD; foreign movies; religious and educational programming; lifestyle, health and food programs; sports programming; specialty cable TV shows; independent movies; and recently broadcast TV shows and sporting events that have high relevancy in specific geographic markets or with specific consumer segments.

The content companies include Arts Alliance America, First Look Studios, Gaiam Americas Inc., Nelvana Enterprises, Venevision International Films LLC, Anthem Pictures, Azteca International Corporation, Bennett Media Worldwide, Cinequest Inc., Film Chest Inc., Inspired Studios, Janson Media, Lightworks Program Distribution, Media Blasters, Monarch Films Inc., Mukta Arts Limited, MVD Entertainment Group, Opper Sports Inc., Santa Fe Productions, Seedsman Group Inc., Smooth Motion Pictures Inc., Starlight Home Entertainment, Tai Seng Entertainment, TLA Releasing, UTV Communications, V.I.E.W. Video, Vanguard Cinema, Wink Inc. Productions, Wolfe Video LLC and World Events Products Ltd.

TV on DVD, Hewlett Packard, HP, video on demand

Now all those shows you download from i-Tunes or Amazon can be burned to a DVD and watched on your television. Sonic, best known for the Roxio CD and DVD burning software, has rolled out technology that makes it possible to make copyright-protected movie DVDs at home.

The new Qflix technology was developed in cooperation with movie studios, consumer electronic manufacturers, IT companies and content distributors and incorporates the same content scramble system used to protect DVDs sold in stores. They are currently working with Dell on the software.

The only downside to this news, is that the new Sonic technology will require special DVD recorders and discs, so in order to use it, you will have to shell out some money for new equipment. Online entertainment distributors Akimbo and Movielink are on board, as are disk drive makers DataPlay, Pioneer, Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions, Plextor, and Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology. The required blank discs are expected from manufacturers Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim and RITEK.

Also planned are movie kiosks, where customers would be able to download older movies that might not be offered in a retail package in stores. Lucidiom, MOD Systems, Polar Frog Digital, TitleMatch Entertainment Group, and YesVideo are expected to provide the kiosk equipment.

Fall not only brings us new primetime television, it brings out dozens of new DVDs and box sets. Execs are hoping that these fall releases will help slumping DVD sales, which are off about 4.8% over last year. Their wish may be granted, as 11 of the top 20-selling DVD titles for the week ending Sept.16 were current TV series (see chart below).

Studios have many box sets and special packages lined up this fall and hope they, too, will help boost DVD sales. Some of the sets to look forward to include The X-Files: The Complete Collector’s Edition and Seinfeld: The Complete Series. They are also seeing success in releasing older shows, which seem to find a new audience. Disney, for example, is releasing cartoons from the 90’s like The Tick and Darkwing Duck.

While retail brick-and-mortar shelf space is limited, online suppliers allow the DVD catalog to keep growing. I, for one, am thrilled to find my new staples as well as my old favorites available at places like Amazon and Deep Discount. Now if only I had some more shelf space…

Week ending September 16 DVD Sales

1. Grey’s Anatomy: Season 3
2. Wild Hogs
3. Delta Farce
4. Charmed: Final Season
5. Blades of Glory
6. Heroes: Season One
7. 300
8. Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams
9. Georgia Rule
10. The Office: Season 3
11. DOA: Dead or Alive
12. Bones:Season 2
13. Two and a Half Men: Season 1
14. Prison Break: Season Two
15. Nip/Tuck: Season 4
16. Desperate Housewives: Season 3
17. Perfect Stranger
18. Supernatural:Season 2
19. Resident Evil
20. South Park:Season 10

Another DVD format will join Blu-ray and HD-DVD in the high def race. Is this really necessary?

New Medium Enterprises (NME) has announced that is is coming out with a new low-cost red-laser high-definition optical disc format, called HD Versatile Multilayer Disc (HD VMD).

The company plans a formal launch in October of its first NME-branded HD VMD players. A top-of-the-line model will have a suggested retail value of $199.

When it launches, DVD titles for the United States will be limited to a handful of releases from independent producers and international studios offerings, including a large catalog of popular Bollywood titles. NME executives said they are “in talks” with Hollywood studios to produce titles in the format for U.S. releases in the near future.

Source

TV on DVD, High def, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, HD VMD, New Medium Enterprises, NME

After a very public falling out between NBC and iTunes, NBC announced today that it has partnered with Amazon’s new video download service called “Unbox”. And on September 10, they will be offering some of the pilot episodes of their new series for free on Amazon prior to them airing on TV.

The advantages Amazon Unbox has over iTunes is that it offers viewers the option to download episodes to their computer or purchase and download directly from their TiVo to be watched on the “big screen”.  The bad news…well you can’t upload the episodes to your iPod or iPhone and watch them on the go.

The Office, Heroes and 30 Rock are currently available for $1.99 per episode on “Unbox”, and more shows are presumably on the way. They also offer an option to buy a complete season of episodes, but prices are comparable with buying a full season DVD and wouldn’t include the special features found on DVD box sets.

You can also find non-NBC shows like SpikeTV’s Kill Point, USA’s Monk and Psych , Fox’s 24, Bones and Prison Break on “Unbox”.

TV on DVD, NBC, iTunes, Amazon Unbox, Heroes, The Office, 30 Rock, Kill Point, Monk, Psych, 24, Bones, Prison Break

According to an article in the Edmonton Journal, it can be. The article suggests watching DVDs is healthier than going out to the movies because you can choose healther snacks while enjoying your favorite TV show or movie in the comfort of your own living room. At the movies, we are inundated with greasy, buttery, high-calorie goodies, but at home you can snack on carrot sticks or low-fat popcorn.

“Healthy snacking in appropriate portion sizes promotes a healthy body weight,” Wilkinson says. “It makes you feel great, provides energy for daily activities and sports, and can help to improve your health while possibly reducing the risk of certain chronic diseases, depending upon the snacks.”

But that doesn’t mean that going to a theatre and having buttery popcorn a few times a year is going to hurt anyone. When it becomes a regular, frequent thing, though, that’s when Wilkinson says people need to monitor what they eat. If they feel the urge to snack and can do so in a nutritive manner, then they are better off watching movies at home.

And when it comes to limiting the amount we eat at home, Wilkinson has a simple suggestion.

“It can be easy to eat a whole bag of chips without noticing, so it’s a good idea to only bring a small amount of whatever you are eating into the TV room with you,” Wilkinson recommends. “That will help to prevent overeating.”

So now you have a good excuse to pick up that favorite show on DVD…you’re doing it for your health!

TV on DVD, Healthy Snacks, Edmonton Journal, Dana Wilkinson

Just when I thought I could make a decision and go with Blu-ray in the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD race, Paramount and DreamWorks have thrown me a curve ball. They announced today that they will now exclusively support HD-DVD. Here’s the press release:

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) and DreamWorks Animation SKG (NYSE: DWA), each announced today that they will exclusively support the next-generation HD DVD format on a worldwide basis. The exclusive HD DVD commitment will include all movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, as well as movies from DreamWorks Animation, which are distributed exclusively by Paramount Home Entertainment.

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